[time-nuts] Re: Rooftop GNSS antenna mounting recommendations

[Ed Marciniak]

Not wanting to drill holes in my roof, I screwed the X bracket that comes with a Starlink V2 (rectangle ~ 12x19 “dish”) to a rectangle made of 2x4 wood and set quantity four 4x8x16 solid cinder blocks on it.

That’s probably overkill, but being the dish can autonomously reposition and it doesn’t seem to position itself horizontal, bird bath style I’d prefer overkill.

The treated wood has a nice friction surface against the shingles.

The phased array being essentially the whole satellite terminal less the indoor power supply would make it costly to replace.

If I were using a ~ 60-100 USD L1L2 patch antenna, I’d probably make some sort of bracket that takes a single solid 4x8x16 cinderblock. If using a larger 18 inch diameter ground plane or a choke ring style antenna that was significantly more expensive to replace, I’d probably opt for at least two.

For me, it depends on what’s on hand for a suboptimal solution versus the mental time and energy to fabricate a more optimal solution. I’m probably not going to setup jigs and weld up just one bracket.
________________________________
From: Matt Huszagh via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 4, 2023 3:22:53 AM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement <time-nuts at lists.febo.com>
Cc: Matt Huszagh <huszaghmatt at gmail.com>
Subject: [time-nuts] Rooftop GNSS antenna mounting recommendations

Hi,

I'll be mounting a GNSS antenna to my roof for timing applications and
would appreciate recommendations for the best way to do this. The
portion of the roof where the antenna will be mounted is flat. I'd
prefer to avoid drilling or screwing into the roof if possible. But, if
there's a safe and reversible way to do this, I'm ok with that.

I found a method described by sparkfun that involves using an anchor in
a cinder block:

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-build-a-diy-gnss-reference-station/all#affix-your-antenna

This seems like an easy and low-cost method. Given the weight of the
cinder block, I wouldn't expect the antenna to move. Thoughts? Any
potential problems with this? Other methods that work well?

Matt
_______________________________________________
time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave at lists.febo.com